Tau

Inhibition of O-GlcNAcase (OGA) has emerged as a promising therapeutic approach to treat tau pathology in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy. Beginning with carbohydrate-based lead molecules, we pursued an optimization strategy of reducing polar surface area to align the desired drug-like properties of potency, selectivity, high central nervous system (CNS) [...]

Apr 18, 2016 – Alectos Therapeutics partner Merck, known as MSD outside the U.S. and Canada, today disclosed preclinical data for potential clinical biomarker [18F]-MK-6240, a highly selective and specific tau PET tracer useful as an imaging agent for quantification of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). A pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, as well as several other neurodegenerative [...]

Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) made up of aggregated tau protein have been identified as the pathologic hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease. In vivo detection of NFTs using PET imaging represents a unique opportunity to develop a pharmacodynamic tool to accelerate discovery of new disease modifying therapeutics targeting tau pathology. Herein we present the [...]

BACKGROUND: Amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are the defining pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Increasing the quantity of the O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) post-translational modification of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins slows neurodegeneration and blocks the formation of NFTs in a tauopathy mouse model. It remains unknown, however, if O-GlcNAc can influence the formation of [...]

Regional glucose hypometabolism is a defining feature of Alzheimer disease (AD). One emerging link between glucose hypometabolism and progression of AD is the nutrient-responsive post-translational O-GlcNAcylation of nucleocytoplasmic proteins. O-GlcNAc is abundant in neurons and occurs on both tau and amyloid precursor protein. Increased brain O-GlcNAcylation protects against tau and amyloid-β peptide toxicity. Decreased O-GlcNAcylation [...]

Background: The abnormal hyperphosphorylation of the microtubule-associated protein tau plays a crucial role in neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and aggregation of hyperphosphorylated tau into neurofibrillary tangles is a hallmark brain lesion in AD. Besides kinases and phosphatases tau phosphorylation is regulated by O-GlcNAcylation, a posttranslational modification of proteins on the serine or threonine residues with [...]

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a growing problem for aging populations worldwide. Despite significant efforts, no therapeutics are available that stop or slow progression of AD, which has driven interest in the basic causes of AD and the search for new therapeutic strategies. Longitudinal studies have clarified that defects in glucose metabolism occur in patients exhibiting [...]

The aggregation of the microtubule-associated protein tau into paired helical filaments to form neurofibrillary tangles constitutes one of the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. Tau is post-translationally modified by the addition of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine O-linked to several serine and threonine residues (O-GlcNAc). Previously, increased O-GlcNAcylation of tau has been shown to block the accumulation of tau [...]